Independent journalist and filmmaker Peter Santenello has been around the world more than once. In YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS, he combines his talents as a wordsmith with his concentrated attention to his native land in its 250th year.

This dynamic, dramatic, surprising and often comfortably amusing saga opens with an exploration of Amish communities. Santenello learns more about their unique mores as he travels by striking up chats with locals and often being noticed and assisted by them. He recognizes that the Amish --- with their buggies, close family ties and willingness to work hard --- can also have fun. They gladly share their contentment and spiritual uplift freely with strangers and one another. 

"Santenello’s efforts have garnered over four million YouTube subscribers who undoubtedly will wish to read his vibrant prose and share it with like-minded companions across a wide spectrum, inviting all to hit the pedal and follow in his well-chosen tracks."

In his trek through Alaska, Santenello absorbs and vividly depicts the many cultures, languages and traditions (some of which are ancient) that comprise that icy realm. Driving through “Deep Appalachia,” he finds unexpected alliances with some of the poorest people in America, former coal miners now persisting in the region that had been their home for generations --- “people who kept lights on, coal moving, factories running, families fed.” 

In rural Mississippi, Santenello senses a pioneering spirit, revealed in little-known backroads communities like the redwood forests of California; the Chesapeake Bay with its colonial heritage; the Hamptons, redolent with “rebel holdouts”; and the Louisiana Bayou, where Cajun culture still survives. Through these explorations, he gradually comes to understand that America is too big to be homogeneous but instead can take pride in its “vast and beautiful geography” and its seemingly ingrown openness to choice and change.

Santenello began his travels as a young man with a high school buddy. They traversed many states and crossed the Canadian border, camped, and enjoyed local folks and scenarios, all while battling a dwindling budget. Through these many sudden variations and subtle transformations, Santenello became determined to survive and succeed by continually hitting the roads. His focus on the United States has occasioned hundreds of effervescent videos introducing indigenous spokespeople and exuding a fearless determination to tell us everything he sees, hears and inculcates. 

Santenello’s efforts have garnered over four million YouTube subscribers who undoubtedly will wish to read his vibrant prose and share it with like-minded companions across a wide spectrum, inviting all to hit the pedal and follow in his well-chosen tracks.